JK Rowling and a bitter online spat over origin of orgasms
JK ROWLING has become embroiled in a bizarre social media debate – about the female orgasm.
Earlier this week scientists claimed to have solved the mystery of why women have them when they have no reproductive function.
According to them, it is because millions of years ago the muscle contractions in female mammals caused by an orgasm were a way to release eggs to be fertilised after sex. Over time the human female evolved to produce eggs on a monthly cycle without having an orgasm – making them apparently pointless.
Miss Rowling, however, appears to suggest that the scientists have forgotten one key reason for the continued prevalence of the orgasm: the sheer pleasure involved.
Pointing out that reproduction isn’t the only reason for making love, she wrote on Twitter: ‘Yes, the prospect of pushing an eight pound object out of your vagina should be more than enough incentive for sex.’
The Harry Potter author was responding to the headline on a New York Times article about the study which read: ‘Scientists are pondering an evolutionary mystery: The female orgasm.’
Her comment drew a somewhat po-faced response from one of the American academics who worked on the study.
Dr Mihaela Pavlicev said that Miss Rowling should have read their scientific paper before passing judgment.
‘Our work is on the evolutionary origin of female orgasm, very much predating “the 8lb babies”, and in fact pre-dating human lineage,’ she said.
Dr Pavlicev, of the Centre for Prevention of Preterm Birth at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in the US, added: ‘Functions of the traits change in evolution and what may sound plausible opinion to us, including Miss Rowling, may not be what evolution is about. I think the opinion is not generated with very much thought, and I would suggest actually reading the paper might help.’
However, thousands of the author’s followers appeared to concur with her. More than 4,000 of them copied her tweet and another 13,000 ‘favourited’ it. Several responded by suggesting that the conclusion the scientists had come to was probably because they were all men.
Miss Rowling, 51, who is reportedly worth £767million, even ended up entering into a conversation with one Twitter user about the wonder of births by caesarean section helping women who have large babies.
Scientists finally solve the mystery of Daily Mail: August 1